Kwame Nkrumah

September 1909 – 27 April
1972), P.C., was the leader
of Ghana and its predecessor state,
the Gold Coast, from 1951 to 1966. Overseeing the
nation's independence from British colonial
rule in 1957, Nkrumah was the first President of
Ghana and the first Prime Minister of
Ghana. An influential 20th-century advocate
of Pan-Africanism, he was a founding member of
the Organization of African Unity and was
the winner of the Lenin Peace Prize in
1963.